Sunday, 19 June 2016

The male Little Owl was in the maple tree on the edge of the leaf yard.

I heard him calling as I approached. Evidently he is trying to entice the two owlets out of the chestnut trees, but they remained there obstinately, one in each tree.

It is not clear why the Little Owls think the maple tree is such a good place for their young. Certainly the family is much troubled by Magpies in the chestnut trees, but if the owls moved the Magpies would follow them. Anyway, this is what the owls did last year and they are trying it again.

The Reed Warbler in the reed bed at the east end of the Serpentine was singing, and could be seen distantly from the dummy bridge above the lake outflow.

A Blackcap was also singing in a tree near the bridge.

Both young Grey Herons were visible in their nest on the island.

You have to go most of the way to Bluebird Boats to get this sideways view into the nest, so it's a distant shot.

The Mute Swans with four cygnets were cruising around the Long Water, which the male swan has now completely cleared of rivals.

As I took this picture, the male had seen some swans daring to show themselves under the bridge, and was heading off to expel them.

The swans on the Serpentine have been much less fortunate. Only three cygnets survive, a pair and this single one.

The Black Swan was asleep in the midst of the terrible mess made by the crowd of Mute Swans on the shore near the bridge. When I came past he opened one eye, saw me, yawned, got up, and came over for his daily treat of a digestive biscuit.

The goose nursery has moved down the lake a bit, and is now quite near the east end, on the south side.

As well as these Greylags, both families of Canadas were here. This is the one with the peculiar mixed brood, including three goslings -- in the middle of this picture -- that may turn out to be Greylags.

The Great Crested Grebe chick at the island hasn't been visible for several days, but it could be heard calling loudly from behind the floating baskets of plants that surround the island, while one of the parents went out to find some fish for it.

One of the Moorhen chicks near the Dell restaurant was pleading piteously for food. But I have seen it feeding itself quite efficiently when its parents aren't in sight.

About Me

I have been coming to the park for more than 60 years, and watching and feeding the birds. I am not an expert birder, but I know and love the park.
My main camera is a Pentax K-1 with a Pentax DFA 150-450mm zoom lens. At 7lb it is just light enough to carry for several hours. I also carry a Nikon Coolpix P900 for video and near shots where depth of field is required, and for very long shots where its enormous 83x zoom (equal to a 2000mm lens) is more important than a high-quality image.

This list is of all the birds, including rare visitors, that have been seen in the park since 1889. Sources include W.H. Hudson, 1898 (the naturalist in whose memory the Rima memorial was built); A.H. Macpherson, 1929; and various publications of the London Natural History Society (LNHS) from 1935 to 1993, with an appendix added by Roy Sanderson in 1995 to bring the total to 177 species. Since then it has been updated from LNHS bird reports, many of these from observations by Des McKenzie, who wrote the predecessor of this blog.